'What I Did for Love'

Saturday

Feb 10, 2018 at 12:01 AMFeb 10, 2018 at 9:42 PM

Matt Mallio @actonbeacon

When the Gallery Villageworks was under construction in West Acton, town resident David Gerratt began talking to the development's owner, Mathias Rosenfeld, about the kind of entertainment they wanted to present.

As Gerratt and Rosenfeld brainstormed, they both found they were fans of the storytelling feature National Public Radio's "Moth Radio Hour."

“And we thought," said Gerratt, "‘Wouldn’t it be great if we were to get some storytelling out here?’”

From this came "Fugitive Stories: Moth-Inspired Stories Told Live," part of Gerratt's company "Fugitive Productions" that brings big city entertainment such as live music, comedy and storytelling, to the suburbs.

Now, in addition to Acton, Gerratt is also bringing storytelling to the Kickstand Cafe in Arlington and Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham.

Storytelling lineup

For the storytelling events, Gerratt brings in three experienced storytellers, some of whom have won storytelling competitions, and three less-experienced storytellers who are often from the local community. Then, the evening of the event, he puts out a hat and invites people to put in their name if they are interested in telling a story. The stories must be just 5 to 6 minutes, and must be truthful; they also must be personal stories that happened to the teller. Each storytelling event has a different theme. Gerratt said this month's theme is "surrender."

He said the storytellers enjoy the space, the audience, and the fact that it isn't a competitive event.

"Out here," Gerratt said, "they just get to entertain."

Gerratt said he usually runs a fall and winter/spring season of events, usually taking the summer months off because it is more difficult to get people to come to summer events. He said the stories told run the gamut from the extremely humorous to the deeply moving. There are about eight storytellers per event and they last about an hour-and-a-half and the events draw anywhere from 60 to 150 people depending.